The next governor of Texas, Richard "Kinky" Friedman, passed through Dallas last week with his perennial sidekick, Little Jewford Shelby. ("He's a Jew and he drives a Ford," Kinky says, explaining his nickname for his friend, Jeff Shelby.) Kinky, who is unmarried, has said that Little Jewford hopes to be the next first lady of Texas.

The independent candidate for the state's highest office is promoting his 17th and final mystery novel, Ten Little New Yorkers. The cigar-smoking, whiskey-drinking author uses the book to kill the main character of all his mysteries: a cigar-smoking, whiskey-drinking private detective named Kinky Friedman. Offing his fictional counterpart must have caused similar cognitive dissonance to that experienced by cartoonist Garry Trudeau last month when writer Hunter S. Thompson, the inspiration for Doonesbury's fictional Uncle Duke, killed his nonfiction self in Woody Creek, Colo.

On Sunday, Kinky, Little Jewford and some of the Kinky-for-Governor faithful dropped in for dinner at Al Biernat's steakhouse. On Monday, the Kinkster signed copies of his new book at Borders Books & Music at Preston Royal.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps LibraryPeace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Crisis Corps arrives in ThailandAfter the Tsunami in Southeast Asia last December, Peace Corps issued an appeal for Crisis Corps Volunteers and over 200 RPCVs responded. The first team of 8 Crisis Corps volunteers departed for Thailand on March 18 to join RPCVs who are already supporting relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India with other agencies and NGO's.

RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PCRPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter.

Add your info now to the RPCV DirectoryCall Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now.

March 1: National Day of ActionTuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Make a call for the Peace CorpsPCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

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Story Source: Dallas Morning News

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malaysia; Writing - Malaysia; Humor; Election2006 - Friedman; Jewish Issues

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